In-product micro-blogging for design sharing

ABSTRACT

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for generating a status update message. The method involves defining one or more status update criteria and monitoring user activity in a software application for the one or more status update criteria. The method further involves determining, based on the user activity, that the one or more status update criteria have been met and generating, via a processing unit, a status update message. The status update message includes multimedia content related to a project associated with the software application.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 61/546,995, filed Oct. 13, 2011, which is herein incorporatedby reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to computer software and, morespecifically, to an approach for in-product micro-blogging for designsharing.

2. Description of the Related Art

A wide variety of software applications are currently available toend-users, including computer-aided design (CAD) applications, computergraphics applications, animation applications, word processingapplications, and computer programming applications, among others. Manyof these software applications allow an end-user to interact with thesoftware application via a graphical end-user interface (GUI).Conventional GUIs often provide the end-user with access to a set oftools that can be used to perform various operations within a workspacegenerated by the software application. For example, a CAD applicationcould provide a set of drawing tools that could be used to createcomplex designs within a drawing workspace generated by the CADapplication. In such a case, each tool in the set of tools would berepresented within the GUI with an icon that the end-user could selectin order to use the tool.

Despite advances in application designs that allow end-users to moreeasily operate complex applications, learning how to use suchapplications can still be problematic. More complex applications, forexample, like the CAD application described above, often includethousands of commands or functions from which to choose and many waysfor an end-user to combine these functions into workflows. Consequently,with unfamiliar aspects of complex applications, even expert end-usersmay require assistance.

In an effort to share knowledge and experiences related to usingdifferent software applications, end-users sometimes post their designsand related instructional materials on websites, such as discussionforums or blogs. Such websites attempt to provide guidance to otherusers regarding how to use a particular application tool or simplyfunction to update others on the progress of a specific project on whichanother user is working. While such technologies enable users todistribute designs and instructional materials to a wide audience, thesetechnologies have several limitations. For example, forum- andblogging-related websites and applications are typically external to thesoftware application from which a user wishes to share content.Consequently, a user must interrupt his or her workflow to manuallyprepare content to be shared, which can be a laborious task. Due to theloss in productivity associated with sharing content, many users whowould otherwise be willing to provide exemplary designs and guidance toothers may choose not to do so. Moreover, users who do choose to sharecontent may provide infrequent updates. For instance, tutorials anddiscussion forum threads are typically posted only after a project orlarge discreet aspects of a project are complete.

As the foregoing illustrates, there is a need in the art for a moreeffective way for users to share application content and instructionalinformation with other users.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method forgenerating a status update message. The method involves defining one ormore status update criteria and monitoring user activity in a softwareapplication for the one or more status update criteria. The methodfurther involves determining, based on the user activity, that the oneor more status update criteria have been met and generating, via aprocessing unit, a status update message. The status update messageincludes multimedia content related to a project associated with thesoftware application.

Further embodiments provide a non-transitory computer-readable mediumand a computing device to carry out the method set forth above.

Advantageously, the disclosed technique enables users to moreefficiently provide detailed project updates and related multimediacontent without significantly disrupting project workflow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the inventioncan be understood in detail, a more particular description of theinvention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference toembodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Itis to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate onlytypical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to beconsidered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to otherequally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 configured to implement one or moreaspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2 sets forth more detailed illustrations of one of the clientdevices and the server of FIG. 1, according to one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 3 sets forth a more detailed illustration of an exemplary statusmessage queue of FIG. 2, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a software application executing on one of the clientdevices of FIG. 2, according to one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of method steps for generating and transmittinga status update message, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. However,it will be apparent to one of skill in the art that the presentinvention may be practiced without one or more of these specificdetails. In other instances, well-known features have not been describedin order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 configured to implement one or moreaspects of the present invention. As shown, the system 100 includes,without limitation, one or more client devices 102 configured totransmit data to and receive data from a server 106 through a network104. More specifically, as discussed in greater detail below inconjunction with FIG. 2, each client device 102 executes at least onesoftware application and a status update engine. The status updateengine monitors one or more different software applications that areexecuted on a particular client device 102 and determines whether one ormore status update criteria have been met. The status update criteriamay include time-based or command-based criteria which are defined by auser or generated by a software application. For example, the statusupdate engine may monitor a user's activity to determine whether theuser has been executing a software application, or has been performing aparticular activity within the application, for a specified duration oftime defined by time-based criteria. Additionally, the status updateengine may monitor a user's activity to determine whether one or moreapplication commands defined by command-based criteria have been issuedby the user. For instance, if the software application were acomputer-aided design (CAD) software application, then the status updateengine would be configured to monitor the duration of time for which theuser has interacted with the CAD software application and/or thedifferent commands issued by the user to generate a design.

Once the status update engine determines that one or more status updatecriteria have been met, the status update engine generates a statusmessage which includes, for example, a textual description of the user'sproject, hyperlinks, multimedia content, and/or a command log. Thestatus update engine then transmits the status message to the server106. The server 106 is configured to accumulate status messages fromeach client device 102 and store the status messages in one or moredatabases. The server 106 is further configured to search thedatabase(s) in response to a query submitted by a client device 102 andtransmit one or more status messages responsive to the query to theclient device 102.

The client device 102 may be any type of electronic device that enablesa user to connect to (e.g., via the Internet, a local area network(LAN), an ad hoc network, etc.) and communicate with one or more otherusers. Exemplary electronic devices include, without limitation, desktopcomputing devices, portable or hand-held computing devices, laptops,tablets, smartphones, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs),etc. In one embodiment, at least one client device 102 may be configuredto provide the functionality of the server 106, thereby eliminating thenecessity of a separate and dedicated server 106. In such an embodiment,the status message database that resides in the server 106, as describedbelow in conjunction with FIG. 2, may instead reside within one or moreclient devices 102, and the different client devices 102 of FIG. 1 maycommunicate with and transmit status messages directly to each other,for example, via a peer-to-peer protocol.

FIG. 2 sets forth more detailed illustrations of one of the clientdevices 102 and the server 106 of FIG. 1, according to one embodiment ofthe invention. As shown, the client device 102 includes, withoutlimitation, a display 202, a central processing unit (CPU) 204, one ormore input/output (I/O) devices 206, and a memory 208. The memory 208 isconfigured to store software application(s) 210, a status update engine212, and a status message queue 214. The CPU 204 is configured toexecute the software application(s) 210 and the status update engine212. The software application 210 may be any type of softwareapplication. However, in the exemplary embodiment described herein, thesoftware application 210 is a computer-aided design (CAD) application. Auser of the CAD application may issue commands through an I/O device206, for example, in order to prepare or modify design documentsassociated with the CAD application. The status update engine 212monitors the commands issued by the user within the CAD application, theduration of time for which the commands are issued, and/or the durationof time for which the CAD application is executed and determines whetherone or more status update criteria have been satisfied. Once the statusupdate engine 212 determines that one or more time-based orcommand-based status update criteria have been satisfied, the statusupdate engine 212 generates a status message.

The status message generated by the status update engine 212 mayinclude, for example, a textual description of the user's project,hyperlinks, metadata, and/or multimedia content. The textual descriptionmay include comments prepared by the user describing the project onwhich he or she is working, or the textual description may beautomatically generated by the software application and may includeproject information, properties, statistics, etc. The textualdescription may further include one or more hash tags which indicate thetopic or relevance of the status message. For example, the hash tag mayindicate the project with which the status message is associated.Hyperlinks included in the status message may reference multimediacontent such as application screenshots, images, videos, audio, projectfiles (e.g., CAD drawing files), command logs, etc. Additionally,multimedia content may be provided in the status message itself. Forinstance, an image or video may be embedded in the status message suchthat a user who views the message does not need to follow a hyperlink toan external platform, website, or database.

A combination of time-based and command-based status update criteria maybe used to improve the quality of status messages and decrease theincidence of duplicate or redundant updates. For example, although theuse of time-based criteria (in which the status update engine 212generates a status message at periodic time intervals, e.g., 1 minute, 5minutes, 1 hours, 2 hours, etc.) is appropriate when a user iscontinuously working on and updating a project, the use of such criteriamay generate redundant status messages when the user is idle and is notactively updating the project. Consequently, time-based criteria may becombined with command-based criteria to provide a better indicator as towhen a project has been significantly updated and, thus, when a statusmessage should be generated. In other words, the status update engine212 may generate a status message only after both the time-based andcommand-based criteria have been satisfied.

In one example, a status message may be generated when (1) 10 minuteshas elapsed since a previous update, and (2) the user has issued theSAVE command. Because users typically issue the SAVE command after asignificant amount of work has been performed, this particularcombination of time-based and command-based criteria may be a goodindicator as to when a status message should be generated. In anotherexample, a status message may be generated when (1) 1 hour has elapsedsince the previous update, and (2) the user has issued a thresholdnumber of commands or types of commands. Further, any time interval andcommand-based criteria which may indicate that a user has performed asignificant amount of work may be used.

In order to prevent the status update engine 212 from providing statusupdates too frequently, prior to transmitting the status message to theserver 106, the status update engine 212 may determine whether a statusupdate rate has been exceeded. For example, in the exemplary embodimentdescribed herein, status update messages are transmitted to a socialnetworking platform, where the status messages can be viewed by theuser's peers. However, many social networking platforms (e.g., theTWITTER® micro-blogging platform) accept only a certain number ofupdates from a given user during a given time period. Accordingly, priorto transmitting a status message to the server 106, the status updateengine 212 may determine whether a status update rate has been exceeded.If the status update rate has been exceeded, the status update engine212 transmits the status messages to a status message queue 214, wherethe status messages are stored until the user's update frequency dropsbelow the permitted status update rate. When the user's update frequencyis below the status update rate, the status update engine 212 transmitsthe status messages through the network 104 to the server 106, where thestatus messages are stored in one or more of the databases 224, 226,228. In addition, status messages may be stored in the status messagequeue 214 when the client device 102 is offline or otherwise unable tocommunicate with the server 106. Once the client device 102 returnsonline or otherwise establishes a connection with the server 106, thestatus messages stored in the status message queue 214 are transmittedto the server 106 and stored in one or more of the databases 224, 226,228.

Although FIG. 2 shows the status update engine 212 as a separatesoftware module, it is also contemplated that the status update engine212 may be integrated into the software application 210 or offered as asoftware add-on or plug-in for the application 210. When configured as aseparate software module, the status update engine 212 may be capable ofcommunicating with and receiving information from a variety of differentsoftware applications 210.

As also shown, the server 106 includes, without limitation, a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 218, one or more input/output (I/O) devices 220,and a memory 222. The memory 222 is configured to store a user database224, a status message database 226, a multimedia database 228, and asearch engine 230. The CPU 218 is configured to execute the searchengine 230, which receives a search query from the status update engine212 on a client device 102 and searches one or more of the databases224, 226, 228 for relevant information. A search query may include, forexample, a particular user, project, hash tag, type of command, type ofproject, type of multimedia content, update timestamp, and/or contextualinformation associated with a user's project and/or workflow. Once thesearch engine 230 locates one or more status messages responsive to thesearch query, the search engine 230 transmits the status message(s) tothe status update engine 212.

The status update engine 212 processes status messages received from theserver 106 to determine, for example, the user and/or project with whichthe status messages are associated, the type of project, the types ofcommands, etc. The status messages are then sorted based on these (orsimilar) criteria and presented in a categorized, timeline, or othervisualized fashion to the user of the client device 102, enabling theuser to view the progress of a particular project or user, as describedin further detail with respect to FIG. 4.

FIG. 3 sets forth a more detailed illustration of an exemplary statusmessage queue 214 of FIG. 2, according to one embodiment of theinvention. As shown, the status message queue 214 includes one or morestatus messages 302, each of which is configured to store informationrelated to a particular user or project. For example, activity dataelement 302-1 includes information such as, without limitation, messagetext 304, an image hyperlink 306, a drawing (DWG) file hyperlink 308,and a log file hyperlink 310.

As described above with respect to FIG. 2, the message text 304 mayinclude project-related information prepared by the user orautomatically generated by the software application and/or one or morehash tags indicating the topic or relevance of the status message.Further, each of the hyperlinks 306, 308, 310 may reference addresseswithin the server 106, or each of the hyperlinks 306, 308, 310 mayreference addresses outside of the server 106. For instance, the imagehyperlink 306 may reference any networked image database or server fromwhich a user can download an image file. Similarly, the drawing and logfile hyperlinks 308, 310 may reference any networked databases orservers from which a user can download drawing and log files. Hyperlinksincluded in a status message may be prepared with a uniform resourcelocator (URL) shortener so that the size of the status message 302 isreduced or to prevent the length of the status message 302 fromexceeding a given character limit. Further, in order to keep track ofthe relationships between status messages 302 and the multimedia contentwith which they are associated, a unique key may be assigned to eachstatus message 302, and this unique key may be stored in each multimediafile associated with the status message 302 (e.g., stored in thefilename of each multimedia file).

Although the exemplary status message 302 illustrated in FIG. 3 includesonly text and hyperlinks, it is contemplated that each status message302 itself may include an image, drawing file, log file, multimediacontent, contextual information, or the like, such that a user does nothave to follow a hyperlink to view or acquire relevant information.Additionally, any other type of information relevant to the status of auser's project or the status of a software application also may beincluded in a status message 302.

In an exemplary embodiment, the status update engine 212 may leverage anexisting micro-blogging platform and user community, such as theTWITTER® micro-blogging platform. In this embodiment, the statusmessages 302 generated by the status update engine 212 may include“tweets” which are transmitted to the TWITTER® platform via a web-basedapplication programming interface (API). Each status message 302 mayinclude one or more hash tags indicating the user, project, application,etc. with which the status message 302 is associated. Other users on theTWITTER® platform may then choose to subscribe to (or “follow”) thestatus messages 302 associated with a particular user, project, orapplication. As an example, a status message 302 associated with theAUTOCAD® software application distributed by AUTODESK® may include the#pj_acd hash tag. Accordingly, when configured to display projectupdates associated with the AUTOCAD® software package, the status updateengine 212 may display status messages 302 including the #pj_acd hashtag. Moreover, upon receiving a status message 302 with a particularhash tag, the status update engine 212 may verify the accessibility andintegrity of data or multimedia content contained in the status message302 or referenced by one or more hyperlinks. Once the status updateengine 212 determines that the status message 302 and the contentassociated therewith are in a valid format, the status update engine 212may download and display the content of the status message 302, asdescribed in further detail with respect to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 illustrates a software application 210 executing on one of theclient devices 102 of FIG. 2, according to one embodiment of theinvention. As shown, the software application 210 includes a graphicaluser interface (GUI) 402, which allows a user to interact with thesoftware application 210. The GUI 402 further enables the user tointeract with the status update engine 212 in order to prepare andtransmit status update messages, view the progress of a project or user,and search for a particular project or user. Although the status updateengine 212 and search engine 230 are described in conjunction with theGUI 402 illustrated in FIG. 4, persons skilled in the art willunderstand that other implementations of the status update engine 212and search engine 230 are within the scope of the invention.

When first executing the application 210 and the status update engine212, a user may create a user account, or a user account may beautomatically created for the user. The user account credentials maythen be saved and automatically loaded each time the user executes theapplication 210 and status update engine 212.

As shown in FIG. 4, the GUI 402 allows a user to select from a varietyof commands 406 for modifying a document. The GUI 402 also allows theuser to select from a variety of functions 408 in order to post statusupdates as well as view and search for projects and users. For example,the project function 408-1 enables a user to view a listing of projects410 and a view status message listing 420 associated with each project410. In one embodiment, a project 410 is defined as one or more messages302 which provide updates for the same project file. For example, in theexemplary embodiment described with respect to a CAD application, aproject 410 is one or more messages 302 which provide updates for thesame design file. A user icon 412, indicating one or more users withwhich the project 410 is associated, and a project preview 415 may bedisplayed for each project 410 in the listing of projects 410. A statusicon 413, indicating that a project is currently being updated and/orthat the project creator is currently offering a real-time stream (e.g.,a live video stream) of the project, also may be displayed for eachproject 410. The project preview 415 may include a thumbnail of aproject screenshot, or the project preview 415 may be based on a projectfile associated with the project. For example, the status update engine212 may retrieve an image or drawing file from the image hyperlink 306or drawing file hyperlink 308 associated with a status message 302 andgenerate a project preview 415 from the image or drawing file.Additionally, the listing of projects 410 may specify whether there areany new or unread status messages 302 associated with each project 410.

Once a user selects a particular project 410 from the listing ofprojects 410, the status messages 302 associated with the project 410are displayed in the status message listing 420. Each status message 302shown in the message listing 420 may include a timestamp indicating whenthe status message 302 was generated or transmitted. In the exemplaryembodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, project 410-1 has been selected, andstatus messages 302 associated with the project 410-1 are displayed inthe status message listing 420. Each status message 302 displayed in thestatus message listing 420 may include, for example, message text 304,relevant commands 417, and/or multimedia content 419. The message text304 may include project-related information, one or more hash tagsindicating the topic or relevance of the status message 302, and/orhyperlinks which reference other textual or multimedia content relatedto a project 410. The project preview 415, relevant commands 417, andthe multimedia content 419 may be associated with one or more hyperlinks306, 308, 310 provided in the status message 302.

The relevant commands 417 may indicate which commands were issued by theuser when preparing the project 410-1. Several implementations of therelevant commands 417 are contemplated. In one implementation, therelevant commands 417 indicate which commands were most frequentlyexecuted when preparing the project 410-1, or which commands were mostfrequently executed since the previous status update. In anotherimplementation, the relevant commands 417 indicate which commands wereissued in preparing the project 410-1 and have not previously beenissued by the user who is viewing the status message 302. In thisimplementation, the relevant commands 417 may enable a user to learnmore about commands with which he or she is not familiar. In yet anotherimplementation, the relevant commands 417 are specified by the creatorof the project 410-1 and may indicate, for example, which commands theproject creator considered to be most relevant or useful in preparingthe project 410-1. Alternatively, the relevant commands 417 maycorrespond to commands which the user who is viewing the statusmessage(s) 302 flagged as relevant or useful, for example, with respectto a particular project 410 or with respect to a plurality of projects410 being followed by the user.

The multimedia content 419 may include icons which a user can select todownload or display additional multimedia content 419 associated withthe project 410-1 or status message 302. The multimedia content 419 mayinclude content provided by a status message 302, for example, images,screenshots, project files, and the like which allow the user to viewaspects of the project 410-1 in further detail. When selected, themultimedia content 419 may be displayed in the application 210 GUI 402,as shown in FIG. 4. Additionally, the multimedia content 419 may includea command log containing a history of commands issued in preparing theproject 410-1, detailed project properties, and/or application settingsused during the preparation of the project 410-1. In an exemplaryembodiment, the listing of projects 410 indicates when the creator of aparticular project 410 is currently working on and providing statusupdates for the project 410. For example, an icon may be displayed overthe project thumbnail 415 when the creator is currently providingupdates. When a project 410 is currently being updated, the multimediacontent 419 may further include an icon which a user can select to viewa live stream or video broadcast of the creator's work, for example, viaa video broadcast client (e.g., the LiveStream web service). Whileviewing a live stream, users may be able to communicate in real timewith the project creator by commenting on or post questions regardingthe project 410.

In the exemplary embodiment, once a project file or screenshot isselected from the multimedia content 419, the project is displayed inthe GUI 402. The user is then given an option to specify content-basedcriteria by selecting one or more regions of the project. Afterspecifying the content-based criteria, the user is notified (e.g., byreceiving a status message 302 or notification) whenever the selectedregion(s) of the project are modified by the project creator. Forexample, a user may select a particular region of interest in a CADdesign by drawing a circle, box, cube, sphere, volume, outline, etc.around a region of the CAD design. Thereafter, the user may receive astatus message 302 whenever the project creator transmits a statusmessage 302 which indicates that the region of interest has beenmodified in the CAD application. Further, the region(s) of interest mayinclude one or more two-dimensional areas and/or one or morethree-dimensional volumes.

The search function 408-2 enables a user to search for other users andprojects to follow. Searches can be performed by specifying a keywordand/or by specifying application-related criteria. For example, a usermay perform a search for a project 410 in which specific commands havebeen used. In response, the search function 408-2 window may displayprojects 410 or status messages 302 which specify those command(s) orwhich include command logs indicating that those command(s) have beenperformed. Further, search results may be updated in real time orsubstantially real time to include new projects 410, users, or statusmessages which meet the search criteria. From the search function 408-2window, a user can select one or more projects 410 or users to follow.

The post function 408-3 allows the user to compose and/or transmitstatus messages 302. The post function 408-3 may include a listing ofstatus messages 302 which have been automatically or semi-automaticallygenerated by the status update engine 212 based on one or moretime-based or command-based criteria but which have not yet beentransmitted to the server 106. The user may review the listing ofgenerated status messages 302 and decide whether to transmit, modify, ordelete each status message 302. For example, the user may modify thetext of a status message 302 and/or determine what type(s) of data ormultimedia content to attach to each status message 302. By default, atimestamp and a screenshot of the project 410 (taken at the timeindicated in the timestamp) may be included in each generated statusmessage 302.

In one embodiment, when composing a new status message 302, the user ispresented with a dialog box which prompts the user to enter a shortdescription of the project 410. The user is further presented withoptions to attach multiple data formats, for example, projectscreenshots, the project file itself, or a log including project history(e.g., command history). The dialog box may include different methods bywhich the user can quickly and easily include a screenshot. For example,one method may enable the user to draw a box around an area of thescreen for which the user wishes to create a screenshot. Other methodsmay include options to include only certain application 210 windows in ascreenshot (e.g., the design window, command toolbars, etc.) in order toavoid sharing sensitive or confidential information with other users.

The “following” function 408-4 displays information related to the usersand/or projects 410 to which the user of the application 210 hassubscribed. For instance, when a first user of application 210 selects asecond user to follow, the following function 408-4 may display each ofthe second user's projects 410, allowing the first user to select whichprojects 410 he or she would like to follow. The following function408-4 further allows the first user to unsubscribe from users orprojects 410 to which he or she has been subscribed.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of method steps for generating and transmittinga status update message 302, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention. Although the method steps are described in conjunction withFIGS. 1-4, persons skilled in the art will understand that any systemconfigured to perform the method steps, in any order, falls within thescope of the present invention.

As shown, a method 500 begins at step 502, where one or more statusupdate criteria are defined and provided to the status update engine212. The status update criteria may be defined by the user or generatedby the status update engine 212. As discussed above, the status updatecriteria may include time-based and/or command-based criteria. At step504, status update engine 212 monitors the application activity of theuser for the one or more status update criteria. At step 506, the statusupdate engine 212 determines whether the status update criteria havebeen met. If the status update criteria have not been met, the method500 returns to step 504, and the status update engine 212 continues tomonitor the application activity of the user. If the status updatecriteria have been met, the status update engine 212 generates a statusmessage 302 at step 508.

Next, at step 510, the status update engine 212 determines whether astatus update rate has exceeded a threshold value. For example, thethreshold value may be defined as an approximate rate above which amicro-blogging platform (e.g., TWITTER®) to which the status messages302 are sent will reject the messages or otherwise restrict access tothe micro-blogging account. If the status update rate has exceeded thethreshold value, the status message 302 is stored in the status messagequeue 214 at step 512. The method 500 then returns to step 510 anddetermines whether the status update rate continues to exceed thethreshold value. If the status update rate does not exceed the thresholdvalue, the status message 302 is transmitted to the server 106. Theserver 106 may be associated with a social networking service, messagingservice, micro-blogging service, or the like, at step 514. Althoughthree exemplary network services have been provided, it is contemplatedthat the status message 302 may be transmitted to any network servicewhich enables users to communicate and share multimedia information.Further, transmission of the status message 302 may take place by anymeans of communication, such as over a network (e.g., the Internet, alocal area network (LAN), etc.) or through a peer-to-peer or ad hocconnection.

As discussed above in conjunction with FIG. 1, one or more of the clientdevices 102 may perform the functions of the server 106, therebyeliminating the need for a separate and dedicated server 106. In such anembodiment, the status message 302 may be transmitted from a firstclient device 102-1 to a second client device 102-2 which is acting as aserver and which includes a database (e.g., 224, 226 and/or 228) and/orsearch engine 230. In yet another embodiment, the status update engine212, the databases 224, 226, 228, and/or the search engine 230 may beimplemented in a cloud computing-type of configuration. In such aconfiguration, the client devices 102 may act as terminal devices, andthe server 106 may execute both the status update engine 212 and thesearch engine 230. One or more status update engines 212 may monitor theapplication activity of one or more users and transmit the resultingstatus messages 302 to the databases 224, 226, 228, which may reside onthe same server 106 as the status update engine 212 or on a differentserver 106 than the status update engine 212.

In sum, a status update engine monitors a user's application activityand determines whether one or more status update criteria have beensatisfied. Once the status update criteria have been satisfied, thestatus update engine generates a status message which includesapplication information such as, for example, hyperlinks, multimediacontent, a screenshot, and/or a command log. The status update enginethen transmits the status message to a status message queue or to adatabase in the server, wherein the status message can be viewed byother users.

One advantage of the techniques described herein is that the user of anapplication is able to provide project updates to peers simply bydefining time-based or event-based criteria which, when met by theapplication, trigger the automatic creation of a status message. Statusmessages may include, for example, multimedia content such as images,video, command lists, hyperlinks, and/or project files. Further, bylowering the transaction costs associated with drafting and submittingstatus messages, the user can provide project updates to other userswithout interrupting his or her workflow.

One embodiment of the invention may be implemented as a program productfor use with a computer system. The program(s) of the program productdefine functions of the embodiments (including the methods describedherein) and can be contained on a variety of computer-readable storagemedia. Illustrative computer-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to: (i) non-writable storage media (e.g., read-only memorydevices within a computer such as CD-ROM disks readable by a CD-ROMdrive, flash memory, ROM chips or any type of solid-state non-volatilesemiconductor memory) on which information is permanently stored; and(ii) writable storage media (e.g., floppy disks within a diskette driveor hard-disk drive or any type of solid-state random-accesssemiconductor memory) on which alterable information is stored.

The invention has been described above with reference to specificembodiments. Persons of ordinary skill in the art, however, willunderstand that various modifications and changes may be made theretowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the appended claims. The foregoing description and drawingsare, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than arestrictive sense.

Therefore, the scope of embodiments of the present invention is setforth in the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for generating astatus update message, the method comprising: defining one or morestatus update criteria; monitoring user activity in a softwareapplication for the one or more status update criteria; based on theuser activity, determining that the one or more status update criteriahave been met; and generating, via a processing unit, a status updatemessage, wherein the status update message comprises multimedia contentrelated to a project associated with the software application.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the one or more status update criteriacomprise a duration of time.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the oneor more status update criteria comprise one or more applicationcommands.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more statusupdate criteria comprise at least two status update criteria including aduration of time and one or more application commands.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the multimedia content comprises at least one of anapplication command log, a hyperlink, a video, and a screenshot of thesoftware application.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingtransmitting the status update message to a network service.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining that a status updaterate has exceeded a threshold value; and transmitting the status updatemessage to a status message queue.
 8. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising: determining that the status update rate has fallen below thethreshold value; retrieving the status update message from the statusmessage queue; and transmitting the status update message to a networkservice.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving one ormore content-based update criteria, the content-based update criteriaspecifying one or more regions of interest in the project; determiningthat one or more regions of interest have been modified relative to aprevious status update message; and displaying the status updatemessage.
 10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includinginstructions that, when executed by a processing unit, cause theprocessing unit to generating a status update message, by performing thesteps of: defining one or more status update criteria; monitoring useractivity in a software application for the one or more status updatecriteria; based on the user activity, determining that the one or morestatus update criteria have been met; and generating, via a processingunit, a status update message, wherein the status update messagecomprises multimedia content related to a project associated with thesoftware application.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 10, wherein the one or more status update criteriacomprise a duration of time.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 10, wherein the one or more status updatecriteria comprise one or more application commands.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein theone or more status update criteria comprise at least two status updatecriteria including a duration of time and one or more applicationcommands.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 10, wherein the multimedia content comprises at least one of anapplication command log, a hyperlink, a video, and a screenshot of thesoftware application.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 10, further comprising transmitting the status updatemessage to a network service.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 10, further comprising: determining that astatus update rate has exceeded a threshold value; and transmitting thestatus update message to a status message queue.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising:determining that the status update rate has fallen below the thresholdvalue; retrieving the status update message from the status messagequeue; and transmitting the status update message to a network service.18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10,further comprising: receiving one or more content-based update criteria,the content-based update criteria specifying one or more regions ofinterest in the project; determining that one or more regions ofinterest have been modified relative to a previous status updatemessage; and displaying the status update message.
 19. A computingdevice, comprising: a memory; and a processing unit coupled to thememory, configured to: define one or more status update criteria;monitor user activity in a software application for the one or morestatus update criteria; based on the user activity, determine that theone or more status update criteria have been met; and generate, via aprocessing unit, a status update message, wherein the status updatemessage comprises multimedia content related to a project associatedwith the software application.
 20. The computing device of claim 19,wherein the memory includes instructions that, when executed by theprocessing unit, cause the processing unit to define, monitor,determine, and generate.